Nature in the Heart of England: A personal view of nature at the junction of Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire - also known as "Banburyshire". Sometimes further afield too!

Thursday, 19 June 2014

Balscote Quarry: pyramidal orchids

An early evening visit to Balscote Quarry in warm sunshine. Star turn were the gorgeous, neatly shaped pink flowerheads of the pyramidal orchid scattered across the grassland. Positively glowing in the sunlight. I counted about fifteen but there must have been more. Far more numerous were the common spotted orchids, which are now just past their best, numbering many hundreds.

pyramidal orchid

Butterflies were on the wing, with large skippers allowing my close approach with the macro lens. Ringlets, meadow browns and small tortoiseshells a little less co-operative.

large skipper

Out on the pool, where water levels are much lower, 22 lapwings were gathered and a single common sandpiper was feeding along the water's edge. Yellowhammers are still singing from the scrub and hedgerows; sand martins regularly to and fro from nest holes in their specially designed tower.

Lots of other flowers in bloom: grass vetching particularly caught my eye, and hoary plantain flowers were attracting a few insects.